


through the flurried snow

by lutzaussi



Category: Bleach
Genre: Christmas Eve, Christmas Presents, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Food, Romantic dates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 22:34:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: Soifon doesn't exactly understand human holidays; that is a given. But when Christmas Eve finally does roll around, she begins to see that humans might be on to something.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mylittleuboa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylittleuboa/gifts).



Soifon arrives a few days late to the two week long vacation that she was promised. She’s not particularly surprised by that, though. It seems, to her quiet, unvoiced opinion, that whenever the word “vacation” is even mentioned, everything in the Seireitei that can go wrong does go wrong.

Case in point: Shunsui gives her, Captain Hitsugaya, and Captain Kuchiki vacation. Two hours after that, the Twelfth Division catches on fire, a fire that quickly spreads to the two neighboring divisions, and at that point Soifon accepts that she is probably not making it to the human realm that day.

Three days later, with Ōmaeda in charge of the Second Division and the Onmitsukidō under the direct control of Shunsui, Soifon doesn’t look back. Within an hour of being told that she is okayed to leave she has packed (presents, mostly) and is out of the Senkaimon as soon as she has a butterfly and it is opened. She is dressed warmly, in her gigai, and for good reason. When she steps out of the Senkaimon, she steps out into snow and wind and darkness of the evening.

Shivering and tucking her puffy coat tighter around her, Soifon glances around to get her bearings. The park, good. She slips her phone out of it’s pocket, taps into the messaging system that Kisuke and Captain Kurotsuchi developed ( _ finally _ developed) and sends a text to Yoruichi, one word. “Here.”

She doesn’t have long to wait before the other woman appears, swathed in a bright red peacoat and a yellow scarf, several shopping bags in one of her hands. Yoruichi waves as she runs to where Soifon is standing, yells, “Soifon!”

Soifon almost falls over when Yoruichi runs into her, pulls her into a tight hug. “Man, am I glad you made it,” she says with feeling, tugging Soifon’s scarf so she can reel the other woman into a kiss.

It’s hard not to smile at that, so Soifon does, “I would’ve cut out the Captain-Commander’s other eye if he had kept me longer.”

Yoruichi laughs, a full belly laugh, and loops an arm through Soifon’s, and says, “Let’s get going before I freeze my ass off.”

It is, blessedly, a short walk to their destination. The apartment is small but in no ways cramped, a 2K with the second bedroom full of stuffed animals, for some reason. Soifon lets Yoruichi tug her bag away and place it on the kotatsu with her own shopping while she tugs her shoes and coat off.

Yoruichi has a small white, plastic tree set up next to her television, covered in lights and shining silver tinsel strands and crowned by a black cat plushie with a halo made out of a yellow pipe-cleaner. Soifon can’t help a snort at that as she digs two paper-wrapped gifts out of her bag. They’re held closed by a matching silver silk ribbon, and when Soifon is sure that Yoruichi isn’t looking, she snaps a picture of the presents with the tree. If anything, Matsumoto will be jealous. The other two gifts are also set with the others, and she places her bag in Yoruichi’s bedroom.

She goes to help Yoruichi in the kitchen, then. The other woman has piled vegetables on one of the counters next to a board and knife, and is currently digging through the cupboards next to the refrigerator, so Soifon gravitates to the vegetables.

Soifon separates the vegetables and begins dicing them, guessing that they are still having the ishikarinabe that Yoruichi had sent her a picture of when she had visited Hokkaido. She’d insisted that they have it when Soifon visited, and Soifon isn’t complaining. She loves hot pot.

“Sorry about not getting here sooner,” she feels the need to say, “I probably could’ve left yesterday but Ōmaeda needed help dealing with some division stuff.”

“That’s okay,” Yoruichi sits up, waves a hand and dusts off her hair, “I ran out of food yesterday, anyway, so maybe it was fate!”

“Yeah, but,” Soifon stops trying to make a point, instead says, “I’m just glad I was able to come.”

“Me, too, and tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, already,” Yoruichi says, dragging out the portable gas burner while Soifon cuts up vegetables, and when Yoruichi grabs onto Soifon and continues, she looks dramatically sad, “what would I have done if you hadn’t made it before Christmas Eve?”

“I,” Soifon pauses, finishes the cabbage, “I don’t know. I don’t see the significance in most human holidays.”

Yoruichi stops trying to pull the donabe out of the cupboard, and actual tears are wobbling at the corners of her eyes when she pulls Soifon into a tight hug. “I am going to change that,” she says, tearful, “if it’s the last thing I do this year.”

Soifon is maybe a little red when she turns back to the vegetables and finishes the daikon and the potatoes. Yoruichi sets the donabe to boil on the stove, stirring in dashi and miso paste before adding in mirin and sake and, after that, milk. Soifon hovers, and stares with curiosity as Yoruichi stirs it, then leaves it to heat and pulls a gutted and cleaned salmon from the refrigerator. She’s never had ishikarinabe before, but Yoruichi says that it’s delicious.

Eventually (after only one more over-dramatic meltdown on Yoruichi’s part) they get the donabe onto the burner that’s sitting on the kotatsu, and eat the hot pot. It is, to Soifon’s delight, very good, and Yoruichi has a rather ‘I-told-you-so’ air about her when they finish and clean up, and both of them aren’t good for more than going to sleep after that.

Soifon wakes up before Yoruichi, but she doesn’t move from where she is wrapped in the other woman’s arms. The curtains are open just enough that she can see that it is still quite dark outside, and there are still snowflakes falling.

They never get this much snow in Soul Society. She marvels at it as she reaches to twitch the curtain open a few inches more, and Yoruichi grumbles at her back. Soifon would like to get up, but she also doesn’t want Yoruichi to let go of her.

She slowly falls back asleep, warm and soft.

Once they manage to permanently get up, it’s around ten and the snow is as thick as ever outside. Yoruichi banishes Soifon from the kitchen (which is hard, because the main dining space is the bar connected to the back of the stove) with a cup of sweet, chocolate spiked coffee and a kiss, then begins to pull bowls and pans and ingredients out of the refrigerator and the cupboards.

She makes a horrible mess along the way, but eventually they have delicious pancakes for a very late breakfast. They leave the mess for the time being, though, and Yoruichi all but drags Soifon down to kotatsu after they eat, fresh cups of coffee in their hands.

“Aren’t we supposed to wait until Christmas to open gifts?” Soifon asks when Yoruichi raids beneath her tiny tree.

“Well,” Yoruichi has a shit-eating grin on her face when she sits, “usually couples will exchange their gifts on Christmas Eve.” The grin grows wider when Soifon reddens.

Soifon stays quiet when Yoruichi runs into the unused bedroom to grab a pair of scissors, sips her coffee and looks over the assorted presents. She had brought two from herself, as well as one from Yūshirō for his sister, and one from the Onmitsukidō whose squad leaders had been absolutely ecstatic that Soifon would be seeing Yoruichi, and had pooled together some money to get their former leader a gift. Soifon is...not really sure what they bought, and it worries her.

“Presents!” Yoruichi says when she sits, laying her legs over Soifon’s under the table.

“Mm,” is all Soifon can reply, nose buried in the whipped cream on her coffee. She lets Yoruichi lick it off when she comes up for air, and says, “Please open yours first, I want to see what the Onmitsukidō managed to buy you.”

Yoruichi snorts, picks the pertinent package up and unties the string holding the paper around it together. She begins giggling when she pulls the contents of the package out, and by the time that she has shaken it out and turned it around for Soifon to see, she is full-blown laughing. It is an indigo happi, but unlike a normal happi with a crest on the back, there is meticulously embroidered black cat, outlined in gold, holding a tanto in each of its front paws with a rising sun hachimaki tied around it’s head and gold hoops in its ears.

Soifon skips the giggling stage and jumps straight to full-blown laughter.

It takes them a few minutes to get calmed down, and then Yoruichi grabs Yūshirō’s gift, looks visibly apprehensive as she opens it. She looks mostly surprised when all that is wrapped in the paper is a silk scarf. “This is,” she pauses, rubs the scarf in her fingers, “huh, it’s reiatsu conducting. That’s thoughtful.”

And then Soifon gets nervous because Yoruichi sets the other two unwrapped gifts aside, turns to her presents. She picks up the closest and Soifon drinks more of her coffee as she unwraps it.

“A scarf and--ohh,” Yoruichi looks up from the scarf and matching hat and gloves, “did you make these?”

Soifon nods abruptly, going red when the other woman beams at her. They’re a purple so dark they’re almost black, knit in a cabled pattern that Soifon chose because she thought it was cosy. Yoruichi pulls the hat on, and the gloves, and grins at Soifon again, pulls her in for a kiss, “You’re the best!”

“There’s another,” Soifon says, pushing the package minutely closer to the other woman.

She pulls the gloves off, opens the last present that Soifon had brought. It’s a box of hand-made chocolates, and Soifon feels accomplished when Yoruichi automatically pops one into her mouth and something like a moan comes out of her. “These are  _ good _ ,” she says, taking one and popping it into Soifon’s mouth. “You made these?”

“Well,” Soifon reddens a little, letting the chocolate melt in her mouth, because while she isn’t a whiz in the kitchen, she is proud of the skills that she  _ does _ have, “Ōmaeda had to help me. The first batch didn’t set right.”

Yoruichi still shines at that, sets the box down and wraps Soifon in a tight hug, kisses her nose. “I love you,” she breathes, and gods she tastes like chocolate and whipped cream.

They eventually do stop kissing so Soifon can open her own presents. Two of them, one from Yoruichi and one from (if she is reading the atrocious handwriting correctly) Orihime and Ichigo and Kazui. She opens that one first, and is pleasantly surprised to find a handwritten note (in a much cleaner hand) and a soft pink hat with a matching pair of gloves.

She reads the note out loud for the benefit of Yoruichi, “Captain Soifon, Yoruichi-san mentioned that you would be visiting for Christmas, and we wanted to give you something in thanks for how much you have helped us the past decade. You tirelessly helped to make Karakura safe while we were recovering, and you have been a good friend to both Yoruichi-san and ourselves.”

Soifon has to blink back a few tears after that, and Yoruichi is in a similar state. The other woman takes the note and skims it, says, “That is very kind of them. We should probably pick up a present for them.” Soifon nods, still feeling somewhat overwhelmed that the Kurosaki family would see her in such a light. Well, she does tend to dote on their son when she is in Karakura. He’s cute.

They remain silent for a few more moments, sip their coffee before Yoruichi pushes her own gift across the table to Soifon.

Soifon generally trusts Yoruichi’s judgement, but she is still apprehensive as she unties the furoshiki. The first thing that she takes out of the package is a sweater, a dark grey sweater with a bunch of cats wearing the red and white hats that she keeps seeing around the human realm appliqued on the front, multicolored bobbles surrounding them and a soft silver bow (its knot also covered by a glittering cat head) above them. Yoruichi looks thrilled.

Soifon giggles quietly, covers her mouth with one hand, “It’s cute.”

“There’s more, there’s more,” Yoruichi says, beaming.

Soifon sets the sweater aside, finds two smaller, tissue-wrapped objects in the bottom. She picks up both of them, opens them one at a time. A necklace with a heart-shaped pendant, made out of crystal or diamond, and matching stud earrings. It is Soifon’s turn to pull Yoruichi in for a hug and a kiss and when they separate she sits so Yoruichi can put the necklace around her neck, and she pulls out her old metal studs and replaces them with the crystal ones.

They do clean up after that, the kitchen and the mess resulting from the presents, but Yoruichi says that they have nothing to do until that evening. So Soifon naps under the kotatsu while Yoruichi watches figure skating on the television, and then they play cards until Yoruichi checks the clock again.

Yoruichi is like a whirlwind, finding a black dress for Soifon and one for herself, then picking out shoes for both of them in different shades of pink, socks for Soifon and tights for herself. She lets Soifon do up the buttons on her peacoat ( _ not _ the red one, thank the gods, but the heather grey) and wind the new scarf around her neck, then she zips up Soifon’s coat, sets Soifon’s new pink beret on her head.

They head out and Soifon reminds herself to get a picture of the both of them later as they head toward downtown Karakura. “They have a lights display in the other park,” Yoruichi says, taking Soifon’s gloved hand, “and I got a reservation at one of the cafes, too.”

Soifon can’t stop smiling as they look at the lights, and by the time they are ready to go to the cafe they are half frozen and there are three dozen pictures of them on her phone.

The cafe is small but busy, and they wait for ten minutes before their table opens up and they are seated. Yoruichi orders cake and coffee for them, and once the waitress is gone she turns to Soifon, still flushed from the cold, and asks, “Any changing opinions on the significance of holidays?”

“Well,” Soifon says, letting Yoruichi intertwine their fingers as they wait for their cakes and coffee and they look out at the snow and the string lights, “humans might have their finger on something about Christmas Eve being romantic.”


End file.
